ABOUT

GWP’s VISION is a water secure world. Our MISSION is to advance governance and management of water resources for sustainable and equitable development.

Our VALUE PROPOSITION: We're a large, diverse, inclusive, multi-stakeholder partnership that supports communities and countries to improve the way they manage water. Put simply, we're about bringing water users together (that’s everyone) to solve water problems.

WE ACT

The actions of GWP's multi-stakeholder partnership support improved water governance so that communities and countries manage water for peoples' health, economic development, and environmental sustainability.

PARTNER

Institutional Partners are the basis of GWP's multi-stakeholder partnership. A strong, diverse partnership can bring about the changes needed to achieve a water secure world. In this section, learn about the benefits of being a Partner and meet a few who already are. We invite like-minded organisations to join us!

This is where you can find links to the websites of our Regional Water Partnerships (RWPs). RWPs are closest to the countries where we work. They share knowledge and learning across national boundaries and are expected to have an open, inclusive, and gender-sensitive policies for bringing together as wide a group of stakeholders as possible to solve water problems.

Water is a core developmental issue; it affects almost every activity within the wider economy and society, including migration, land use and settlement growth and changes in industrial activity. Consequently, the developments that do not necessarily relate to the water sector per se – for example national energy and food policies – are yet always closely connected to water. Setting goals on water use, protection and conservation, must be based on policies that take into account these various interconnections.

As pressure on water resources increases, governments need to consider water as a resource in its own right and manage it accordingly. Policies are the framework within which water resources are managed, and thus a framework within which to develop an IWRM approach. To be integrated, water resources policy must mesh with overall national economic policy and related national sectoral policies. IWRM also means that water issues within every economic and social sector must be taken into account when using or impacting water.

Since the multiple users of water are competing, and the demand on the resources is increasing both in terms of available quantity and of quality, the participation of as many different stakeholders and authorities in the management of water resources as possible is crucial. Only in that way can water governance systems come up with policies that will be deemed both socially and economically beneficial. At the same time, policy makers should be aware of environmental concerns – the ways in which water policies may have an impact on other environmental media and vice versa – and bring these into proper consideration.

Policy formulation is a core role of governments. Through its policies, the government can delimit the direct and indirect activities of all stakeholder groups, including itself. The government can be a direct provider, or regulate and support other providers. Appropriate policies can encourage participatory, demand-driven and sustainable development. Policies that encourage IWRM include reference to the nation's wider social and economic objectives that make up the development goals of the society. Policies lead to the development of laws and rules and regulation (A2) designed to achieve the overall policy goals.

Appropriate policies can deal with the many inter-related and complex issues involved in IWRM, including:

Assessing the environmental, economic and social values of water;

Assigning responsibilities to the various public and private actors including basin organizations;

Recognizing the role of women as users and managers of water resources;

Taking into account sustainability and environmental issues in the planning, design, construction, operation and management of major water projects;

Assessment of the social impact of water resource developments;

Restoring and protecting the quality of surface and ground waters;

Introducing flexible drought and flood management strategies;

Mandating the provision of easily accessible, accurate and up-to-date data on water resources and needs;

Linking water policies with other sectoral policies;

Estimation of the costs of policies and identifying the means for financing them.